Should Episode IX be split in two movies?

I would rather have the longest movie in Star Wars history then let it be split into two movies. It defeats the purpose of a trilogy. Plus, they've already said "this is the end of the Skywalker Saga." The pt 2 crawl would look weird, by the way.

 

Of course not.

 

There is always #10.

 

In a way I think that's right.

I can see why some people think Ep9 could be split into two, because if the expectation is that the First Order will be defeated, Kylo is redeemed and peace prevails in the galaxy, then that's maybe a lot of story to tell in just one film. Personally I'm not convinced of that.

Although Disney have certainly capitalised on Lucas's original concept of a nine part 'trilogy of trilogies', I suspect the ST isn't designed to be a concluding trilogy, but the opening trilogy in a new era of Star Wars story telling. They want to tell stories akin to those told of the time of the OT, but they want to tell more of them, and for that to happen they need an 'evil galactic empire' with an 'evil dark side leader' and a plucky band of rebels and heroes struggling against that.

If peace and order is restored by the end of the ST, then what next? Another dark lord rises to lead another regime? I wonder if the plan is to have the First Order around for some time as the collective antagonists of future movies.

 

EPIX should only be split as long as it will be EPIX and EPX, not EPIX part 1 and 2. But I doubt it. EPIX will be marketed as the final chapter of the Skywalker saga and this movie needs this. Without it you haven't much to get the interest of the viewers, especially the haters.

 

The clue are the numbers. Episodes have numbers. Without it, could be ok to split into two movies. A movie after IX must be called episode X, like @NinjaRen said.
I prefer a 3 hour long movie.
And lots of spinoffs...

 

I don't know though. "A trilogy in four parts." Has a sort of ring to it.

 

"Episodes IX parts I and II" would just be too silly. If anything, they could do an "Episode X" to cap off the whole saga without having to wrap up the plot threads of this trilogy, maybe assuming that 10 is a more complete-feeling set than 9.

But then you lose the poetry of Star Wars.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 2, 2018, Original Post Date: Sep 2, 2018 ---

OR --waitforit-- split Episode IX into 9 films, then split the last of THOSE films into another 9 films, and the last of THOSE films into another 9 films, forever and ever, world without end, amen.

 

Last Jedi could have been split in 2. Expect 1 movie for 9

 

But have we 'lost' it already? Is one of RJ's subversions the subversion of that poetry?

From Ann Lancashire's 'Complex Design in the Empire Strikes Back' to Mike Klimo's 'Ring Theory', I've enjoyed seeing interpretations of the way each film mirrors and rhymes with previous installments, and hoped that it wouldn't just be ignored under new writers and directors. But I'm perhaps just as happy, if not more so now, at the prospect of that form and structure being broken away from, particularly if it's done deliberately and with intent, and I wonder if that's what RJ has done with TLJ.

It's already been suggested that TLJ is a four act film, whereas all the rest follow a three act structure, and if TLJ 'rhymes' with TESB, well it also 'rhymes' with ROTJ, so it's arguably already different. It conceptually takes the most significant part of ROTJ and bolts it onto the middle episode. And although still open-ended, there is a 'completeness' to TLJ which I don't think TESB has.

So if the saga is a poem, maybe the penultimate stanza is a 'bridge' with a change of rhythm to prepare us for the new form of the final stanza, like the bridge or maybe the middle-eighth in a song, or even a switch to a different time-signature.

 

While dividing Ep.IX into two films would certainly help, they don't really have to do it. There is really only one major character conflict left (Rey-Kylo Ren) and all the movie really has to show is how the Resistance managed to gather enough forces to assault whatever serves as the FO capital. Which can partly be covered by the opening crawl and partly by supplemental material, novels and comics.
What the ST desperately needs is some heavy worldbuilding and there is plenty of time before Ep.IX to work on that.

 

I really hope they don’t split IX into two parts. The trend of splitting the last movie in two parts does not need to come back. It never works, and we end up with two mediocre halves instead of one really good film.

 

What trend? What's the precedent for it never working?

How do you define 'half a movie'? What does that even mean when that movie doesn't even exist yet?

As yet, there is no 'last movie'. It isn't written, so it can be whatever the writers want it to be. It's not like they are adapting an existing book. The last movie is the one they chose to end with, be it Episode 9 or whatever episode they chose to end it on after that.

So if they decide there are two more parts of the story to tell rather than one, then that just means there are two more episodes and we're talking about a tetralogy rather than trilogy.

A trilogy itself is already a story split into three parts. So why not four?

 

It was a big trend in YA adaptations a few years ago to always split the last book into two movies. It all began when warner brothers split the last Harry Potter book into two movies to a) double profits and b) to prolong the franchise nearing its end. The studios then decided to breakup one complete story and sell it in installments once they realized how much money the last two HP movies made with that gimmick. So came the Hobbit trilogy, mockingjay parts 1&2, and every third book of all YA adaptations cashing in on the Hunger Games.

Try doing that to Star Wars: there is a vocal fan base that hated TLJ, skipped out on Solo, and just want to get IX over with without having to buy two tickets to be done with a franchise that Disney has run into the ground.

 

If this is how this "boycott" looks, then there is some kind of misunderstanding there. Shouldn't a boycott involve, you know, boycottingsomething instead of buying it? Besides, this whole "what killed Solo was a boycott" take is so tired I won't even comment on it.

Now it's time to discuss the topic of splitting a film in two. If you believe it is a matter of opening a EpisodeIX.mov file in an editing software and finding a scene that ends around the film's midpoint, then cutting the film there and exporting the two cuts into two new files, then this is a wrong pressumption. If you split a film into two films, you're making two films, not two halves of one films. This means that you have to change the script. All Hollywood blockbusters follow a basic three-act structure (here's a video about it to see how it works) and for 99.999999999% the same is true for Episode IX. This means that in the script there is some sort of setup, midpoint and finale to the story. Each good screenplay, even if it contains a more open end than most of the films, like TESB or Kill Bill vol. 1, has all of these points within its story. Splitting this story in two would result in one film that ends in a quite random place and another film that begins in a quite confusing point in its history. What that means is that if you want to turn Episode IX you have to restructure the script in such a way that you have (in chronological order) setup 1, midpoint 1, finale 1, setup 2, midpoint 2, finale 2. This of course means rewrites, then it means reshoots, then re-edits. In other words - this would mean that the budget for this film would have to be inflated and it would also cause delays. In other words - it's not gonna happen.

 

Sure, but those were all adaptations of existing stories. They were already written. But the future of Star Wars isn't written yet. There is no story to be 'divided' into two parts. Just the potential for more stories to be told. There is no real reason that there cannot be two more episodes if they want to write them and make them that way. I'm not saying it's either a good or bad idea. Just that when we talk about dividing the final installment into two, we're really talking about is making two more episodes. The third part of the saga is gets told in four parts.

That stuff about the haters is irrelevant and doesn't even deserve a reply.

 

I just don't want the last part of the trilogy to be two movies. It's going too far in changes to the franchise: a trilogy should just stay a trilogy. We don't need four movies to tell a story that has already been finished in TLJ. That's just my opinion.

 

Episode IX covered in 2 films. Don’t need it. Don’t want it. Not going to get it.

 

Agree agree ..